ShareThisBy EDWARD G. ROBINSON III
Raleigh News & Observer
Thursday, August 30, 2007
On the morning of April 16, Josh Oglesby awoke to find ambulances and police cars outside his dorm window at Virginia Tech.
From his first-floor room inside Cochrane Hall, the freshman football player saw people carrying what he later would learn to be the bodies of students slain by Seung-Hui Cho, the deranged gunman who killed 32 people that day before killing himself.
That morning still haunts Oglesby, who remembers how students supported one another during the hours and days after the slayings.
The victims and those exchanges of goodwill will be foremost in his mind on Saturday when ninth-ranked Virginia Tech hosts East Carolina in its season-opener at Lane Stadium in Blacksburg, Va.
For many, though, the question will remain: What can a football game possibly mean to the families of the victims or others affected by such a harrowing event?
Virginia Tech coach Frank Beamer said this week that it could mean a lot.
"I think all of us have invited the time when as many Hokies as possible could be together, and this is probably that time since the shooting," Beamer said. "... I've said many times Hokies want to be with other Hokies. I think we're determined to show our strength and our togetherness, too."
The outcome of the first major sporting event on campus since the shootings appears almost secondary, with memorials for the victims scheduled throughout the weekend and the nationally televised game serving as another way to honor them.
"Everybody in Blacksburg has been looking forward to this game," said Oglesby, who is a second-semester freshman and will not play. "This is our time to ... celebrate those 32 victims."
Americans have shown that in times of tragedy, sporting events, though in no way a panacea, can aid in the recovery process.
Many point to what the Yankees meant for some New Yorkers after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. Others point to the New Orleans Saints' 2006 home opener at the Super Dome after Hurricane Katrina devastated that region.
Dr. John A. Fairbank is the co-director of the National Center for Child Traumatic Stress at Duke University and is a professor of psychology. He said research shows that those who experience disasters -- from fires to floods -- desire social support.
"What we know is that when people are able to communicate with each other ... support each other after a traumatic event, these things are helpful," he said. "When you love sports and when you really are involved in a community that's really into a football program ... it meets all of those criteria."
Fairbank said people are able to express feelings around sporting events they might not ordinarily express. He said a sporting event "doesn't solve the problem," although it may help people adapt.
Fairbank said sporting events are most helpful when not held too soon after a tragedy. At that point, he said, people do not feel they are diminishing the victims by cheering and celebrating.
"If you went to a football game a day after, everybody would be thinking, 'What's the meaning of this compared to what just happened,' " he said. "But that changes fairly quickly as people realize it's important to be with each other, it's important to do things in daily living.
"I don't think in the long run that people feel guilty."
Virginia Tech sports psychologist Gary Bennett, who is a full-time member of the athletic department, said he expects the entire season to become a continuous memorial, where at each sporting event they honor those lost in the shootings and those emotionally touched by them.
Still, he said no game could begin to fill the void left by the incident or fully comfort those parents and families affected.
"We realize this is going to be a long process," Bennett said. "That game on Saturday is a positive step. I think it's going to help people come together, but it's just one of the many steps the community will be taking."
